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Monday, March 27, 2017

My friend suggested that I make cheese and thyme muffins many months ago but I kept forgetting to buy cheese. When I did buy cheese, another type of muffin would sound more appealing. But here they are, finally. Perhaps my favourite part of making these was how the house smelled while they baked. They made me crave pizza and if I can get my act together this week, I think I'll definitely make some pizza on Friday. Maybe there will be thyme on my pizza? No. In the crust would be better. These don't have as much pepper as my onion and garlic muffins and I definitely missed the cayenne. I had to nix it though because I wanted to share them with someone who can't handle the heat. But next time, dear cheese and thyme muffins, next time. Also, The next time I make these, I want to use a sharp cheddar or a mix of cheeses.

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease the cups of a muffin tin or line with cupcake liners. You'll need 10 cups.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and black pepper. Stir in the cheese and thyme. In a separate container, mix together milk, oil, and the egg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Gently mix together until just combined.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.
Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Our winning ingredients for this month of the Crazy Ingredient Challenge is something sweet - pear - and something spicy - red pepper flakes. I've used the pear + pepper combination before so I knew that I would love this.

Two teaspoons of crushed red pepper flakes does not make these extra spicy but there are some bites that will have more of a kick than others. Please note that I love spicy food so my tolerance is high.

Pear and Pepper Scones

Ingredients

1 1//2 cups grams flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

8T butter

1 pear, chopped

6 T milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F.

Mix together flour, sugar, red pepper flakes, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into the flour mixture so that the mixture appears crumbly. Stir in the chopped pear. Add the milk and stir until just combined.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface. Pat into a 6 inch circle. Cut into 6 wedges and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

I had this post planned for weeks! I was going to tell you why I stopped baking cakes. I was going to talk about how I wanted to hoard these bundts because they were DELICIOUS. I wanted to tell you about making fresh coconut milk for the first time. (I probably shouldn't admit that to my Jamaican friends. Everyone makes coconut milk!) But things happened. I procrastinated. And suddenly it was a few hours before the post needed to be up and BAM! Powercut. I should have been in bed 2 hours ago so let's make this quick.

Leave at room temperature for two hours. The batter will rise but not double.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Bake 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

#BundtBakers is a group of bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bundts with a common ingredient or theme. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient.
Co-Host: Felice; Host blog: All That’s Left Are The Crumbs (http://allthatsleftarethecrumbs.blogspot.com/)
Co-Host: Wendy; Host blog: A Day in the Life on the Farm (http://adayinthelifeonthefarm.blogspot.com/)

You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about #BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.
And don’t forget to take a peek at what other talented bakers have baked this month:

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

This month's bread baker's theme became a history lesson for me. Wendy chose Irish breads and as I searched for one that grabbed my attention, I delved deep into the Great Famine, Corn Laws, potatoes, and migration. I had heard about the famine in passing but never read much about it. One fact that stood out was that while millions starved, Ireland was still exporting food. In a prior famine, there was an export ban but they did not ban exports this time. This means that there was probably more than enough food in Ireland - it was just too expensive. What they did import, was also poorly distributed.

This Irish Freckle bread has potatoes, a staple food before and after the famine, along with raisins for freckles. I'm a huge fan of potato breads and this one did not disappoint. Unbelievably soft. I felt guilty about eating an entire bun (they're HUGE - about three times the size of a standard dinner roll) on a day when I did not exercise. But there's always tomorrow. I should note that most of the freckle breads that I saw were in loaf form. Taste of Home shaped them into these large buns and I loved the look so I went with this instead.

Thanks, Wendy, for an educational (and delicious) theme this month. I almost didn't participate but I am so glad that I did. Be sure to scroll down to see what the other bakers are serving up from Ireland.

P.S.: Check out this link from Cook's Illustrated about checking the temperature of your bread. Spoiler: Your bread can reach optimal temperature before it's baked.

Directions
Beat 240 grams of flour with the water, oil, sugar, potato, eggs and, yeast. Keep beating until smooth then add all the raisins and enough of the remaining flour to form a soft, tacky dough. Knead until cohesive.

Cover and let rise overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature until doubled.

After the dough has risen, grease a 10" springform pan. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Shape each into a ball and place in the pan. Cover and let rise until doubled (~ 30-45 minutes).

Before the dough has doubled, preheat the oven to 350 F.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the bread is golden and the internal temperature has reached 200 F.

Notes

Mashed potatoes can have varying water content; Pay attention to this so you don't end up with an extremely sticky loaf. If it is rather sticky, doing a cold rise will be helpful. Also, oil your hands when shaping the dough.

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.